exactly! this might be in the “controversial opinion” camp but i always say missy works because the master as a woman would behave exactly like how steven moffat thinks women behave… like with some exceptions (hi bill) i tend to not like how he writes women but it works really, really well for missy.
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NO ABSOLUTELY ive never thought of that lmao. it works so well for her
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I am gender non-conforming too. I wear both masculine and feminine clothes.
I remember reading RTD’s rationale of why The Doctor’s clothes regenerated from Jodie to Tennent. He said that cisgender men of my height wearing feminine clothes could be seen as being done for jokes, or being a mockery of trans people or drag performers. I read this while was on my way back from the post office wearing a skirt. It was a blow to me to then see him then double down in DWM.
My hero thinks (/ or at least thought at the time) that what I wear in my daily life could be seen as making a mockery of women or drag culture. It is odd to see a deliberate lack of representation of people like me on screen.
NGC people face mockery from some quarters in their day to day life, on public transport, etc. I reguarly have people taking photos of me without my permission. I would have thought a gender changing, time travelling alien would have provided the ideal opportunity to tackle this on TV in a very natural way. Maybe one day! Its nice to see Ncuti in skirts.
My whole life I’ve been told by supportive people that “its just clothes”, but then I see RTD say this and I’m reminded that its not “just” anything. Its a statement whether I like it or not.
Anyway - I am a huge fan of RTD, but this is something I have unresolved feelings around.
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I’m rapidly coming the opinion that RTD needs to stop ‘explaining’ himself. First was the clothes regenerating, then the ‘Davros isn’t disabled now’ and then ‘The Celestial Toymaker’ was racist.
All of his ‘story’ decisions could be quite easily left open to interpretation but then he comes along and says something which just seems to piss off the people he is ostensibly trying to protect/represent/value.
That said, I know he isn’t in an echo chamber - the production team did, for example, consult on disabled representation in the show - but as I’ve said elsewhere, society is on a massive learning curve at the moment and there are going to be stumbles along the way.
But he really does need to just shut up sometimes!
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Totally agree. And I rather wish he’d run the whole binary/non-binary thing past someone, as I wound up sitting here wondering if I missed Rose being both trans and nonbinary somewhere…
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Yeah, that was oddly muddled wasn’t it?? A few people noticed that!
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The thing with RTD’s explanation about 13’s clothes is that I’m pretty convinced it’s something he basically BSed because he for some reason thought it would sound better than what I think is actually true: they didn’t have 13’s costume in a size that would fit DT and weren’t going to spend the time and money creating one for just a 30 second scene, especially when the costume designer left with the old production team.
Although possibly it’s the middle ground between that and what he said, which is that they could have put DT in 13’s outfit, but only if it were comically small and tight on him, and that’s where there was concern that it would seem like mockery
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This actually sounds like the most plausible explanation I’ve heard.
What struck me, though, was that the Doctor’s clothes regenerating happened from Hartnell to Troughton so it wasn’t like it needed an explanation. He could have just said it was a reference back to that.
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Or even just that it’s meant to be part of the already weird regeneration. But also I definitely don’t think think that he doesn’t at all believe what he said, I just think that it’s not really the primary reason, but one that he’s giving because he doesn’t want to imply any sort of behind the scenes issue.
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RTD’s rationale is made even stranger by the fact that Jodie was always dressed in clothes that (in my opinion) were either masculine or gender-neutral. Definitely not overtly femme. I would have loved to see them spend a few pennies to re-tailor the iconic outfit to Tennent’s body, like any cosplayer would have!
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Indeed, and his argument was more or less voided by the fact the Sacha Dhawan was wearing a version of Jodie’s outfit in the same episode!
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Incidentally I would have absolutely loved if they took the opportunity to dress the first female Doctor in something fabulously feminine. It was a missed opportunity for me.
One thing I’m loving about Ncuti’s era is the Jodie Comer / Killing Eve style outfit changes from episode to episode. The more clothes the better for me.
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It would have been nice to see, but I also fully understand not spending the money on that. If it were a more normal Doctor who would wear it for their first episode, then absolutely, but when it was really never going to be worn past the regeneration scene, that’s a pretty huge expense for so little screen time. And I believe that RTD wasn’t even confirmed to take over until after they’d wrapped POTD, so it’s unclear if Ray Holman would have even been available to make a new one and I’m not totally sure if Pam Downe could have recreated it or not.
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I’m loving the Ncuti wardrobe. I’m too old and ‘normal’ to carry off the sort of fashion I wish I could have and always wish I’d been braver in my teens and 20s.
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You only have one life, you’re never too old to try something new! 
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With the clothing thing he did also say he didn’t want the press to use it to go on transphobic attacks, which looking at the press right now, I can’t say its an unfair assessment of them
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Yes, this is how I read it too. He thought the image of Tennant wearing “women’s clothes” would be mocked and would cause transphobic comments.
So he wasn’t suggesting it was something that should be mocked, just something that the right wing papers would have a field day with. And they would.
Of course then the Master wears her clothes (and the earrings too, so cute) and no-one really mentions that. It also helps that her clothes were never really feminine (but I agree, she 100% should have had more feminine clothes. I feel that everything Chibnall did was very safe).
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It was mostly Jodie’s call to have more gender neutral clothes. She’s mentioned several times that it was something really important to her in the costume. From everything I’ve seen, I get the sense that Chris Chibnall mostly just let Jodie and Ray come up with the costume and didn’t really give much input into it himself.
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And here is an important point. People often behave as if Chibnall solely made every decision of what appeared on screen but its very clear that he had a desire to have a more collaborative approach to making the show - right down to having a writer’s room (at least in the early days). There’s probably a lot that Chibnall gets blamed for that was actually someone else’s idea or decision.
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The problem with that is that as the “showrunner” he had the final say. So ultimatly it does come down to him.